It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hey everyone!  How was your Thanksgiving?  Ours went well!  We had it at the same place the girls birthday party was.  It was such a beautiful day outside, so the kiddos played on the playground most of the time while the adults relaxed and ate A LOT of turkey and ham and potatoes, and well.. what wasn't there?? :)  We've always had Thanksgiving at a family members house, but this year with the weather being so nice this late in the season, my grandparents figured why not have it at a public place and let everybody meet there, have fun, eat, relax, chase the kids around, and when we are done, throw everything away and go home.  No messy cleanup, way easier!  I think everyone had a great time :)

I made 20 lbs of mashed potatoes to bring, so of course I had a few dirty pots and pans when we got home.. No problem, throw em in the dishwasher!  Well, my dishwasher apparently didn't like that idea too much and decided to blow up.  Thank God we didn't go anywhere, and where able to smell the smoke before it got out of control.  Luckily, it was the perfect time to look for a new one!  Black Friday was the very next day and I found one for half off.  YAY!! This mama loves a good deal, especially on something that is not so much of a necessity, and more of a luxury, but seriously... to me, it is a necessity!  I was the dishwasher for way too long ;)

I got a beautiful *yes I think it's beautiful!* new dishwasher and the girls got a new fort!! Win-win!

On the subject of home improvements,  I've been asking the hubby for years months, that I wanted the TV above the fire place.  I thought it would look so much better up there, with the surround sound going, and the sectional couch actually in the corner of the room and not taking up the whole CENTER... This was always WAY too much work.. and too many holes in the wall for my liking.. so when I came home one day, I was shocked to see a project going on!

Instead of just moving the TV to above the fireplace... He got a projector.  Sneaky sneaky ;)  With a little trial and error, they figured out that instead of the projector screen paint, they'd have to fabricate one... The picture was just too big for above the fireplace.  A little search on google and BAM we have a blueprint of what we need.  1 hour later, we had a "movie theater" room as the girls like call it.

Is 137" too big?  I must say watching football this year, really feels like we are there in the arena!  lol I guess it turned out pretty good.. I gave the hubbs lots of crap, doubting his "skills" and all ;)  In the end, I got what I wanted, a tv over the fireplace and the living room moved around how I like..  He says I'm spoiled.   Oh well... Like they say, "If momma's not happy, nobody's happy."  ;)

Now we are on to getting ready for Christmas.  As most of you know, I am SUPER excited.  I love everything about this time of the year.  The girls are super excited now too... I love that they are old enough to do a lot of fun things now and get into the season.  Especially at school, they do lots of little crafts that I just adore and I'm going to need another closet just for the things they bring home!  We started last night with our first trip to see Santa!  They told him what they were hoping to see under the Christmas tree soon, and gave him hugs and smiled pretty for the camera.

I must admit, I am obsessed in love with Bass Pro Shops!  I don't hunt or fish or anything of that nature, lol but it's an awesome place just to walk around!  If you haven't been there, you definitely need to go check it out!

Well that's it for now!  Hope you all are well, thanks so much for coming by! <3

Fun Fall time!

I love fall.  From the cooler weather, to the excitement of holidays to come!  I just adore it!  It all starts with Halloween!  Well it used to start with Halloween, now it starts with the girl's birthday (for me anyways) ;)  And than comes the hubby's and my anniversary.  We just celebrated 6 years! Time definitely flies by!  We celebrated by going to Beni-Hana, our tradition since our first anniversary.  I remember the first time we were going to go, I was not happy, I didn't think I'd like it, but now I cannot imagine, not going there! It's so fun, and the food is awesome.

It was nice to go out on a date again, just the two of us.  We rarely do that.  We need to do that more often lol.

This Halloween the girls had so much fun!! Every year it seems to become more fun because the girls get their own ideas in their heads and pick out what they want to look like/be.  Cassie decided to be Strawberry shortcake and Scarlett chose to be Katy Perry.  They were so cute!  Like any girl, they LOVE getting dressed up and it makes it even better if they get to wear wigs.

The only thing I had to make this year was Katy Perry's headband.  I could not find that dang heart headband anywhere!!  And finally when I did, it was online for like $50.  No way jose... So we dropped by Hobby Lobby (I could get in a lot of trouble at that store) lol and made one for $2.  I think it turned out cuter anyways... What do you think?

They got to show off their costumes at school.  Each class walked in the parade and you know they LOVED the applause ;).  We walked around our neighborhood, grandma's neighborhood, and went to Nana's house.  I think they each got about 10 lbs of candy!  By the time we got to the last street they were both so tired, they were begging to go home.  Of course they fell asleep on the drive home.  You better believe we carved some pumpkins before we got dressed up!

The girls got to have a sleep over with their cousin Hayden and had so much fun.  The library down the street transformed into "Hogwarts" for halloween and they got to attend.  The girls were both put into the "Hufflepuff" class and Hayden was put in "Slytherin."  They got to choose magical animals, make post cards, learn the ancient art of runes, make Harry Potter glasses, make a magic wand, and even take a potions class!  At the end they got to enjoy a nice big glass of "butter-beer".  They said it was super yummy.

They had so much fun diggin in those pumpkins.. Well Hayden and Scarlett did, Cassie had to hold in puke everytime she put her hand in there, till eventually she just stopped and let Hayden do the rest.  It must be a texture thing.  Cassie and Hayden did the pumpkin on the left and Scarlett and I did the pumpkin on the right.  They were the "lovebug" pumpkins.  The one on the left was supposed to have another tooth but it fell out, oh well lol.

Now I'm thinking about Christmas.  I know I know, Thanksgiving is coming but, I gotta plan WAY ahead for Christmas.  Plus Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday.  I just love the feeling of the season.  Plus the cold weather.  I'm hoping we can get up north this winter again to see some snow.  The girls still talk about that year we went to the North Pole to see Santa and got to play in the snow.  In the end, I think that's what it comes down to, the memories.  It's the little things you remember from when you were a kid, and I cannot wait to make so many more memories this holiday season with my family and friends!  <3

Thanks for comin by!  Hope you are well!

Xoxo